Just Love Yourself and You're Set
by WhatBecomesOfYou
Summary: The acoustics in the dorm showers really were amazing, Beca learned. Beca/Chloe. Written for Yuletide 2012.


**Author's Note:**_ Written for coloredlights for Yuletide 2012. Title and lyrics that are used in this story are taken from Lady Gaga's "Born This Way."_

* * *

_My mama told me when I was young, we are all born superstars._

The acoustics in the dorm showers really _were_ amazing.

Beca could actually hear herself think in there, which was a nice change of pace from the rest of campus - instead of the world moving too fast for her, she could move at her own pace. She could think about what was bothering her without her roommate giving her nasty looks for breathing too loudly, or Jesse asking her with that concerned look in his eye that usually meant that he was seeking some answer that she couldn't give him.

Like the answer for why she was avoiding him.

Was it too easy to say that she was into other people? And not so much into him? As awesome of a guy as he really was?

Specifically that she was into Chloe-shaped other people? Chloe - Chloe was _that_ girl that seemed to have all the confidence and none of the ego to go with it. It was a wonder that she didn't have a line of a million guys (and more than a few girls) running out of her dorm.

And so she sang in the shower, singing for only herself - and whatever unlucky people happened to be in the showers at the same time as her. She did try to avoid showering when many people were around, however, if only because then the possible embarrassment level was lessened considerably. She sang everything that she could think of - from that One Direction song that was all over the top 40 airwaves and her Facebook feed, to old Rilo Kiley album cuts, to classic songs from Queen and Zeppelin. And everything in between.

She held out a long note at the end of, "_I'm beautiful in my way, 'cause God makes no mistakes_," when she heard a scratching noise at the edge of her shower curtain. And that meant only one thing could be about to happen -

"You're singing Lady Gaga, aren't you?! 'Born This Way' is an inspiration to everyone to be who they are, instead of hiding." Chloe said, bursting into the shower. And somehow, Beca couldn't be shocked by this turn of events anymore. It was all a part of her life at Barden: class, Bellas rehearsal, radio station, weird shower interludes with Chloe.

It was part of what helped her to adjust to life on a college campus.

Besides, she was kind of grateful that she didn't have a roommate who constantly had sex in their room - she didn't want to be part of that Sexiled group that met on the couches outside the library and commiserated over crappy roommate assignments. Even if she didn't like her roommate, necessarily, at all, it was still an advantage.

And yet - there was Chloe. With all of her confidence and bravado, strutting in as if she owned the place, without making a big deal out of it. She knew that she was good - a good singer, probably good in bed - although why Beca was thinking about how good Chloe was in bed was beyond her wildest imagination. Except for the whole "I have a B-boner for you" thing - which was like a Toner, except for fellow Bellas. Cynthia Rose was the one who had coined it, because "not everyone in this group wants a Treble-Tone, you know."

No one had as of yet managed to figure out who it was coined for, though. Not that it mattered, particularly.

"You know the song?"

"_Of course_ I do. It's not as if I've been living in some Titanium-encased cave since the days of Aubrey's Ace of Base and those god-awful baggy jeans that everyone wore everywhere, Beca."

"I figured that much. Besides, you're not _dressed_ like you just woke up from a 1998 coma." Beca looked Chloe up and down. Of all the times they had had these shower-based encounters, she'd never had a chance to really check out Chloe's body. She was usually too scandalized by the sudden intrusion to look. But if Chloe could look - she dared herself to look at Chloe - "you're not dressed at _all_, actually."

"That's the whole point," Chloe insisted. "Now, are we going to sing, or what?"

To sing in the shower was one thing. To sing in the shower with another woman was another thing entirely. And to sing Lady Gaga's anthem to personal pride, in the shower, with another woman, was so far beyond the scope of Beca's imagination that she couldn't even fathom it. And she found herself itching to _do_ things - things like touch that little mole on Chloe's torso, taste what the water droplets on her skin tasted like. Everything that she wanted someone to do to her, she wanted to do to Chloe right now.

She stuck her tongue out from between her lips and tried to focus. Their melodizing had gotten considerably more skilled since being in the Bellas together, which was to be expected and praised. It just meant that the sounds that were being produced were more skilled and polished, such as a capella could be.

"Beca?" Chloe asked, as they finished the song with a skilled flourish and an exaggerated hip thrust from Beca. "You okay over there?"

"Yeah. I'm okay." More than okay, she thought ruefully. "Just -" She grabbed Chloe by the back of her neck and kissed her, with only a squeak of surprise as an indicator of how Chloe felt. "Did I screw up?" she asked, after she broke the kiss; she stared at Chloe, wondering what was going through the other girl's head at that moment. "Because you don't just sing 'Born This Way.' You _feel_ it. In your bones. It's like a virus. A Lady Gaga virus."

Chloe smiled a mysterious, small smile. "No. You're right. I thought I was being so good about hiding it all along."

"No, not really. You were fairly insistent, after all, about me being involved in the Bellas, and so I figured out there was something going on there. And then all the shower visits -"

"Those genuinely were because I liked hearing your voice. But the rest of it - okay, yeah."

"Yeah._ Right._ Like I believe you right now."

"Shut up and kiss me again." She preened, leaning forward and looking up at Beca with half-lidded eyes.

And Beca obliged, pressing Chloe against the shower wall with a crushing kiss. She found out exactly what happened when she touched that mole, and the water droplets tasted like water. But so much better.

_I'm on the right track, baby, I was born this way, hey._


End file.
